‘You’re never really free’: Understanding the barriers to desistance for registered sexual offenders in the community
| Author | Priya N Devendran,Natalie Mann,Samantha Lundrigan |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1748895819853861 |
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895819853861
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2021, Vol. 21(2) 206 –223
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895819853861
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‘You’re never really free’:
Understanding the barriers to
desistance for registered sexual
offenders in the community
Natalie Mann
Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Priya N Devendran
Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Samantha Lundrigan
Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Abstract
This article explores the relationship between the current model of community sex offender
management, which is underpinned by mechanism of control and enforcement, and desistance
from sexual offending. Utilizing data from qualitative interviews with 20 men convicted of sexual
offences, we found that while existing practices offer some reassurance to those managing the
public protection arena, they do little to encourage the substantive processes of identity change
which is necessary for long-term desistance. This raises important considerations for how
current risk management practices may be improved to encourage desistance and community
reintegration.
Keywords
Desistance, recidivism, reintegration, sex offending, surveillance, welfare
Corresponding author:
Natalie Mann, Policing Institute for the Eastern Region, Anglia Ruskin University, Bishops Hall Lane,
Chelmsford, CM1 1SQ, UK.
Email: natalie.mann@anglia.ac.uk
853861CRJ0010.1177/1748895819853861Criminology & Criminal JusticeMann et al.
research-article2019
Article
Mann et al. 207
Introduction
The rise of the ‘new penology’ has had a profound effect on how individuals convicted
of sexual offences are managed and reintegrated into the community. As Deering (2011)
highlights, transformations in sex offender management, facilitated by the rise of the
‘new penology’, has prioritized public protection through restrictive methods of risk
management. Within the United Kingdom, the risk-based model that has come to char-
acterize contemporary sex offender management since the 1990s is exemplified in meas-
ures such as multi-agency frameworks on risk assessment, treatment and management,
under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) (Harrison, 2011).
The heightened focus on managing ‘sex offender risk’ undoubtedly holds serious con-
sequences for the desistance and reintegration into society of those convicted of sexual
offences. Indeed, while scholars have identified successful community re-entry and
social reintegration as pivotal in fostering desistance from sexual offending (Göbbels
et al., 2012; Lussier and Gress, 2014), punitive risk management practices have resulted
in ‘collateral consequences’ (Tewksbury, 2005) that constrain social opportunities for
change and limit important situational supports that set those convicted of sexual offences
on a trajectory of desistance. As a result, the social consequences of risk-based sex
offender management have become ‘not just more prevalent but also weightier and stick-
ier than in previous decades’ (Farrall and Sparks, 2006: 7).
In order to examine risk management practices and their relationship to desistance,
this article utilizes qualitative interviews with men in the community, convicted of sexual
offences. It argues that while restrictive risk management techniques might support for-
mal desistance and ‘offer some reassurance to practitioners tasked with the difficult and
uncertain business of public protection’ (Weaver and Barry, 2014: 153), they present
only short-term solutions to re-offending. In contrast, more definitive solutions to recidi-
vism that occur through substantive processes of identity change, involving continued
interactions with social and structural supports, are impeded by current risk management
practices, with long-term implications for public protection. Consequently, the current
risk-based model of sex offender management must be reconceptualized in order to
incorporate more progressive elements to support the process of substantive desistance.
Desistance and Sexual Offending
The concept of desistance has been canvassed extensively in criminological literature.
While scholars differ on the reasons for desistance (Blumstein et al., 1986; Farmer et al.,
2015; Hirschi and Gottfredson, 1983), most agree that it is a dynamic and complex pro-
cess undertaken by an individual to ultimately decrease or refrain from offending behav-
iours over time (Kazemian, 2007). Desistance has been explored and evidenced
empirically from two perspectives. The first examines the role of social/structural factors
that support desistance, while the second explores internal processes of subjective/cogni-
tive change. Research in the former perspective has focused on the role of informal
social control mechanisms on the desistance process, in particular the role of stable
employment and intimate relationships (Farrall et al., 2014; Sampson and Laub, 1993;
Savolainen, 2009), while research in the latter perspective demonstrates that desistance
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